Twelve Remain After Opening Day of Q Tour Play-Offs in Spain

The opening day of the 2026 WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Offs has reached its conclusion in Gandia, Spain and just 12 players now remain in contention for the three World Snooker Tour (WST) tour cards on offer.

Eight former WST cueists still have the chance to return to the professional ranks next season, while four are hoping to secure a tour card for the first time in their careers. By the end of tomorrow, the three final round matches will be known.

Play-Off 1

A quartet of former professionals kept their hopes of a WST return alive after opening day victories in the top section of the Q Tour Global Play-Offs.

A strong line-up featured five players who had previously held a tour card and their experience showed as four of them secured places in Monday’s semi-finals.

Peter Lines arrived in Gandia as the highest seeded player in the entire competition and he made a comfortable start against 20-year-old Oliver Briffett-Payne, hitting a break of 50 to open up a 2-0 advantage before a further half-century in the sixth completed a routine 5-1 victory.

The two oldest players in the event will meet in the semi-finals as Lines, aged 56, faces a man just one year his junior in the last four after Barry Pinches scored contributions of 70 and 71 in sweeping aside Australia’s Ryan Thomerson by a 5-1 scoreline.

Ashley Carty and Peter Devlin will meet in the other semi-final after defeating Hayden Staniland and Simon Blackwell respectively.

Devlin, who last featured among the professional ranks in 2022, lost the opener to Blackwell before winning five of the next six frames to get over the line. Meanwhile, an impressive scoring display from Carty saw him compile breaks of 68, 77, 106 and 60 to complete the semi-final line-up.

Play-Off 2

Daniel Womersley mounted a memorable comeback against former professional Andrew Higginson to reach the semi-finals of the second Play-Off section in Gandia.

The Englishman received a late call-up the day before the event following the success of Oliver Sykes in the EBSA European Championships, and he trailed the 2007 Welsh Open finalist 4-2 in a race to five.

Breaks of 134 and 90 saw Womersley force a decider, however, before getting over the line to set up a last four meeting with fellow countryman Mark Joyce.

Joyce had made a slow start to his opener against Q Tour Middle East qualifier Ismail Turker, trailing 3-0, but the Englishman stole the fourth with a break of 54 to start a run of five consecutive frames – rounding off the victory with a 113 clearance.

The other semi-final will see a repeat of the final of the seventh Q Tour Europe event earlier this month as England’s Ashley Hugill meets Wales’ Alfie Davies.

Hugill made light work of Luke Pinches, who was unable to follow in the footsteps of his victorious father earlier in the day, as the former professional ran out a 5-1 victor while Davies came from 3-2 behind to overcome Sean O’Sullivan with help from contributions of 67 and 60.

Play-Off 3

Stuart Carrington hit the highest break of the day, a 140, en route to defeating Alex Millington 5-3 to reach the semi-finals as he aims to return to the WST after a single season away.

Carrington will next face fellow countryman George Pragnell, who comfortably booked his place in the semi-finals with a whitewash defeat of American Hasanain Khalid Alsultani, who was making his second appearance in the Q Tour Play-Offs.

That result was one of three 5-0 scorelines during the concluding session of the opening day in Gandia.

Alan Whitfield, from Canada, suffered the same fate as fellow Q Tour Americas series qualifier Alsultani as England’s Patrick Whelan scored breaks of 64 and 67 en route to a whitewash win.

There was also a comfortable victory for former professional Craig Steadman, who wrapped up the victory with a break of 92 to earn a first win in the Q Tour Global Play-Offs at the third attempt.

The WPBSA Q Tour Global Play-Off semi-finals take place tomorrow (16 March) and you can follow the event via WPBSA SnookerScores or watch live on the WPBSA YouTube channel.